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Tuesday, 8 August 2017

Saturday and Sunday 5th and 6th August

Juvenile Cuckoo (c) Tezzer

Both mornings this weekend on the moor were dry, but cool
with the threat of rain never far away.

Just as over the last couple of weeks the main interest
centred around young birds from a number of different species and not just the
passerines. The mixed feeding flocks are very obvious, there was a group of
over forty finches feeding on the track as it goes past the feeders. They were
predominantly Chaffinches but amongst them were a number of Bullfinches, another
species that is currently very common in the hedgerows.

Some of the chaffinches (c) Bark

Turtle Dove pair? (c) Derek Lane

On Sunday morning a juvenile Water Rail kept appearing and
disappearing in the rough cut reeds right in front of the first screen. It was
both skittish and gawky, looking as if it hadn’t yet become familiar with how
to manage its long legs and feet. With such a sustained and close view it was
possible to really appreciate its’ lateral compression, the adaptation that
enables it to move so easily through densely growing reeds.

Juvenile water Rail (c) JR

A young Green
Woodpecker has been noted from the same area sitting up very obligingly on the
dead branches of one of the oaks. Reed Warblers are very busy along the
bridleway ditches and in front of both screens. They are clearly gathering food
for second broods and sometimes feeding youngsters fresh out of the nest.

Juvenile Green Woodpecker (c) Bark

Last weekend a visitor reported seeing a juvenile Cuckoo
beside the first screen and there were several reports of the same bird during
the earlier part on the week. On Thursday it was seen and photographed by T.S.
as it posed right out in the open on the “kingfisher perch” in front of the
screen. It was no longer being fed by its surrogate parents and stopped on the
perch for only a couple of minutes before making off. It is a typical juvenile
cuckoo; dark brown flecked with white and grey and having a rufous cast on the
wings. P.G. looked at a picture of a juvenile cuckoo he took last August and
his bird was very much more rufous than any of the current crop of juvenile
pictures that we have seen. This led us to speculate that it may in fact have
been the hepatic bird that we saw on the moor this summer, returning to the
area where it fledged last year. We would welcome any views or suggestions as
to the likelihood that this might be possible.

This years bird above (c) Tezzer Last years more rufous bird below (c) Stoneshank

The juvenile Marsh Harriers have moved off and this weekend
we only saw the adults that we are familiar with. On Saturday morning two
juveniles were seen at Farmoor before moving off high and later being seen again
at Standlake. We assumed that they were two of “our” juveniles. On Sunday
evening another young Marsh Harrier was seen over the reedbed, it had at least
one bright green wing tag (it was seen a considerable distance and so whether
there were two tags and a number was not clear) There is as tagging programme
being run by a North Norfolk Group supported by the Hawk and Owl Trust. It
suggests that this individual has already travelled from East Anglia and so it
is not surprising that our youngsters are now also on the move.

Kebabbed Sedgie! (c) JR

Out at the Pill there is what appears to be a family party
of Stonechats. Three juveniles and a pair of adults. They were first found on
Thursday and were still around at the weekend. It is an early record for a bird
that we would normally expect to find arriving to overwinter during autumn.
Another juvenile was seen and photographed at least three weeks ago, I understand
that they have bred this year up on the Downs and it might just be that this is
a family from there or perhaps from even nearer still. There are still five or
six Redstarts in Long Meadow and on Sunday there were still two Spotted
Flycatchers.

Reedy (c) Bark

There were many butterfly enthusiasts out on Sunday hoping
to see Brown Hairstreaks, they were rewarded with some sightings but as always
with these tiny creatures it is luck and sunshine dependent, if you are to get
great views and close-up pictures. Purple Hairstreaks were also present. I have
heard that several weeks ago, over on the other side of the moor in some
suckering elms, there was a single record of a White Letter Hairstreak.